Category Archives: Gumbee Fantasy Writers’ Guild

I find myself on tenterhooks, waiting for the first review to go up for Quest in Time: A Beginning. I have also just finished reading a book by another independent author, and have to write a review for that. So, book reviews are up there at the moment, vying for attention, along with, how do I pay the rent this month? Are we going to get another dog? And, where is my coffee?

Firstly, it is impossible to overstress how important reviews are for the indie author. We are unknowns. We do not have the backing and publicity machines associated with the big publishing houses. Our books do not get sent FOC to newspapers and other organisations for critic. WH Smiths do not have our books on the shelves or huge cardboard cut-outs of our front covers in the window. A press release for us is a write-up in the local paper, if we are lucky. Therefore, reviews of our books on Amazon, Goodreads and social media are the only way potential readers can get an idea of whether or not to part with their hard earned cash for our works.

So far I have been lucky; Bubble of Time hasn’t had any particularly bad reviews. The worst has been a two star review which was critical of the Devonian accent of several of my main characters. Otherwise, they have all had something nice to say and mostly been five star reviews. Therefore, it could be said, that I have not had to deal with a bad review. However, it doesn’t stop me worrying that the first review for QIT:AB will rip it to pieces, and will put off other people from buying it. I know my books won’t appeal to everyone; even the great STP had his critics and dissenters. But the first review…

I know the book I have to write a review for has had some shocking reviews. I don’t understand why. Perhaps they were expecting something else? True, the book is hardly a JRRT work, but it is an interesting fantasy story that has been told well. Yes, it is simplistic, but why does that matter? Surely the enjoyment is in the story itself and not in deciphering some huge political back-story or some complicated, multi-generational character angst? And since it is the second in a trilogy, why, when they have trashed the first volume, have they even bothered to read the second book, only to trash that one as well?

I do not pretend to understand the human psyche, and therefore, to me, a bad review is something I’ll take on the chin. As long as the majority of reviews are five star, I won’t worry too much about the odd bad one. I know my work will not appeal to everyone, no author ever does. But the first review…

Long before I became a Fantasy writer, I was a long time Fantasy reader. I started reading Fantasy at the age of twelve, back in the days when Fantasy was a distinctive genre and readers knew what to expect of it… before the Romance and YA invasion that started in 2010 changed all that… but I digress.

The point I’m working towards is that as I read book descriptions to vet the gems from the dross in today’s open publishing market, I continually come across tropes that are being done to death so that I glaze over within a few words of the description. One phrase that is certain to send me to the next interesting looking book cover is “Fifteen-year-old [name]…

The writer has already lost me. The thing is, I’m not adverse to a young protagonist, or even a child character. I’ve written some myself in Demoniac Dance where a whole group of children are primary characters and Namah, the lead character, is far too young to submit herself to a forced marriage not long after she has her first woman’s blood.

The reason that particular phrase sends me running is that it is invariably the portent of a certain kind of story; one where a young person, usually a girl, will go through a prescribed script of growing up challenges and come out strong and happy, having accomplished great things. The stories tend to be very similar as well as one dimensional, effectively slight variations on a common theme.

These stories have their market, but if you look at their sales rank on Amazon, you might notice that the glut of these stories has spread sales very thin for most of them. A ranking with seven figures indicates a book that sells no more than a few copies.

There are other tropes that have become boring in their commonality; the romantic vampire or werewolf character, the damaged woman who survives through inner strength, the zombie apocalypse, the military outcast who saves the universe. There are more.

If this is the kind of story a writer wants to write, then they should certainly write it. However, if they are thinking of putting it up for sale, it is worth being realistic with expectations. Of course your story will be better than all those others with a similar idea, but that’s beside the point. The question is, are you writing it because you will get enjoyment from writing that particular story, or do you have an ambition to write stories that will sell?

If you write for your own enjoyment, I recommend uploading to Wattpad where readers can comment and encourage the budding writer. If you want to write for profit, I suggest studying the publishing market. A few hours of perusing sales figures on Amazon and similar stories to the one you want to write could save you many more hours of wasted creativity that will only add one more clone to an overdone trope.

Of course there is always the possibility of finding a new angle to a particular type of story. The last thing I would want to do is to discourage anyone from writing anything, but study your market. If several book descriptions sound similar to yours, find a unique angle and most importantly, put some extra effort into writing your description so that it doesn’t sound like all of the others. Avoid that phrase, ‘Fifteen-year-old..’ and another turn-off, ‘Follow [name] as he/she/they…’ unless you’re writing children’s books.

If you really must write yet another coming of age story, find a way to be original. Let the transition happen in original ways and shoot down the clichés that all the other stories have done over and over again. We are constantly told that there are no original stories. It’s an opinion that I don’t quite share. At the very least, show the reader that you can tell the story in an original way. Shine with original content and you won’t be wasting all the effort it takes to write a book by ending up among the slush pile of the seven digit sales rank.

Yes, it’s another one of the questions that comes up in the author interviews, “why did you chose the setting that you did for the book?” or some such. “Why there? And what was the reason behind it?”
In my case it is simple, because my Lyonnesse is the world I would very much like to inhabit. It is a place where life is simpler and where magic and mystery still exist, and on the whole people are kinder to one another. Money isn’t the be all and end all and life is respected and held sacred. Not just the people, but everything that lives there, animal, plant and fungus. Things aren’t done quickly because it saves a few pennies (or cents). Things are done properly with love and attention.
I have been criticised as being anti-establishment and anti-capitalist. Not true, well not in the conventional sense anyway. Probably because I make a big thing out of everyone bartering in Lyonnesse. I fully understand that money is the ultimate, and in some ways, logical tool for bartering with. However I do object to the way it is used in our society. It is used to coerce the poor into unfulfilling and mind-numbing jobs, whilst the gap between rich and poor grows ever larger. The mathematics is simple, if everyone gets a 10% pay rise then the man at the bottom earning ten thousand a year get an extra thousand to take home. However, boardroom man earning one hundred thousand gets an extra ten thousand a year, the equivalent of an extra man doing the work at the bottom. I could go on and I know that this is simplistic but it is still true.
Also, because boardroom man is keen to meet targets and because labour and wages are the single greatest expenditure for most companies, if a few seconds can be shaved off of the time it take to do something, so much the better. As a result everything becomes just good enough at best, and pride in the work you do goes out the window. Take roads for example. Yes, alright, I have a bugbear about roads, but they make a good example. Years ago councils used to have their own road building/maintenance departments to look after the roads. And for the most part they did a good job and took pride in their work. They had to because their foreman of works would come along during and after the job to make sure it was being done properly.
Then, in an effort to save a few pennies, it was decreed that all works commissioned by councils had to go out to tender, and council work gangs were laid off. Many of the recently laid off workers organised themselves into small companies, often with the same managers they had had before. They still did a good job of repairing the roads and the council saved a little money because the small company didn’t have to support tiers of management and could therefore do it cheaper. The councils still had to pay someone to inspect the work after, but all was well, and the men still had pride in their work.
Enter big business. Why? Because the contracts for road repairs are very lucrative and there is money to be made. So many of the small business either had to reduce their prices to compete for the tenders or they were bought out by bigger firms. Since the costs of the materials used were fixed the only way to reduce the price was to do the job quick and therefore with less care. This reduced the number of companies vying for the tenders, seen as a good thing because it generates competition. The councils are still happy because they are still saving money, and they can save even more money by nor replacing their inspectors as they retire or leave because they are confident that a good job will be done because it was last year. The workers aren’t as happy because they no longer have the time to do the job to the standard they are used to.
Years pass as they have a habit of doing. All the small companies that were started when the work first went out to tender have now either gone out of business or been bought out by big business. This reduces the number of companies bidding for the tenders. The council is still under pressure to save money and goes for the lowest bid. (Yes, I’m not going to say anything about the backhanders that go on to get contracts.) The big companies have to save money, somewhere because they have the tiers of management to support that the small companies didn’t. But that’s ok because the old work gangs are getting to retirement age and are fed-up with the half arsed job they were doing. Instead of having the expense of hiring and paying wages, all new recruits are taken on as self-employed subcontractors. This not only saves the expense of employing staff but also means they don’t have to pay them if there is no work for them to do. The workers are only happy in the fact that they have a job and are earning a wage. The council still haven’t hired any more inspectors because they can’t afford it. Big business realises this and starts cutting corner in the work they do. This saves them even more money.
A short time later big business is happy because they are making lots of money. There is no one left in the gangs who knows how to repair the roads properly because they have all gone. Instead, the workers have to work to a tick box minimum standard and do it as quickly as possible using the least amount of materials as possible. They have no job satisfaction because not only are they self-employed and have no rights in the company and no say, but also they know they are doing a half arsed and how much the management is getting paid.
In the end the workers have no job satisfaction, council is paying more for the job that it would if it was doing the work itself, and the roads are in a terrible state because they have been poorly maintained and work is no longer inspected.
Big business is happy because there is an endless supply of work repairing roads that they didn’t repair properly before, and they are still getting paid for it.
Alright, alright, this is highly simplistic, but it is still true, and not just for roads, for everything that was subcontracted out and put to tender. Everything is now done to a tick box minimum standard. Excellence and pride in a job well done have become too expensive because there is no profit in it. Communism does not work because there is always someone who wants a larger slice of the pie. However, capitalism can only exist where there is a poorly paid underclass.
As usual please feel free to comment or rant at my rantings.

Since the release of Bubble of Time I have done a number of author interviews and inevitably I get asked “what drives you to write?” or something very similar. And each time my answer has been basically along the same lines but limited by the amount of time I’ve had to think about it, a few minutes for a web post or split seconds for radio interviews. So for me and many other authors it has become the focus for navel gazing along with other important philosophical questions like “who am I?” “why am I here?” and “why have I just spilt cold coffee all down my front?”

So, having given it some serious thought, what does drive me to write? A need to express myself? A need to be heard in a crowd? A desire to entertain others? It’s certainly not for fame and fortune. Whilst success stories of indie writers making it big are common, they are in a very small minority. True, my aim is to make a living out of writing… eventually…hopefully, but that is not it either. I have found that my desire to write comes from a much more fundamental and arguably the greatest gift that mankind has, our imagination.

“Greatest gift!” I hear you scoff. “Surely that is the arts, literature, music, learning, science, our technology, our faith in god or gods [delete as appropriate] or simply our capacity to love?”

No, it is our imagination. Imagination features heavily in my second book, Quest in Time, so it is something I have thought a lot about. Without our imagination all our great works of art, be they from the impressionist, the cubists or even graffiti artists would look like photographs. It is the imagination which drives everything from the interpretation of what the artist sees and the style in which he or she paints to the very colours and brushstrokes that they use. It is the imagination of the artist that fills countless galleries and adorns our walls, from the cave paintings of our ancestors to a Banksy mural. [Love him or hate him, I particularly like his “Follow your Dreams” picture.]The same arguments apply to all of the creative arts, including music and literature. No? Then why dose a piece of classical music come alive when played by orchestra ‘A’ by conductor ‘B’ but not when conductor ‘C’ is leading the same orchestra? Why is a story sometimes dull and boring when read from the page but brought to life when read to you by the right person? Why is Shakespeare so dull until you learn how to listen to and interpret it?

So what about science, learning and technology? Surely they are based in hard facts and reality? Imagination can play no part in them. Just think about it for a moment, the very basis for science is the scientific method. The Collins English Dictionary defines the scientific method as “a method of investigation in which a problem is first identified and observations, experiments, or other relevant data are then used to construct or test hypotheses that purport to solve it”. It is our imagination that identifies the problem, derives the experiments and allows us to form a hypothesis. And we learn from these hypotheses and trial and error driven by our ability to imagine a way around a problem. As for technology, well how often have you heard “were waiting for someone to dream up the next big thing”? Every single piece of technology and science was imagined by someone before it became fact or reality.

Religion? I think that more or less answers itself, and I don’t want to debate too much on whose imaginary friend is best. I acknowledge that I am not religiously minded now though I once was, and I understand the deep need to believe in something greater than ourselves and do not wish to convert others to my way of thinking. However, all religion is based on belief and faith. We imagine there to be a divine being or beings [again delete as appropriate], some greater power and or ultimate plan for us all which allows us to believe as strongly as many do.

And lastly, although perhaps fundamentally, love. Perhaps my thoughts on this will cause even more arguments than my brief musings on religion. Love is perhaps the single most difficult thing to describe. Partly because one word describes so many different kinds of love. I think this is where the Inuit have the advantage with their three hundred words to describe snow [alright I excaudate but you get my point]. There is love for a partner, for a sibling, a parent, an offspring, a friend etc. etc. etc.

But these are all based on our desire to be in a world where that person exists. We subconsciously imagine how much better life is when we are with that person. Then once we are in orbit around that person we then subconsciously imagine how bad life would be without them and that drives our longing to be with them always. If we are away from them then we imagine how good it will be when they return. Yes I’m oversimplifying but this could go on for pages and pages.

To sum up, everything we do or feel is derived from our imagination, which is why I think it is so important and strongly dislike anything that tries to take it away from us. It is our most powerful tool and our greatest asset. So far I have been lucky, I have never sat staring at a blank page and had nothing to fill it with. True, I may write a page of drivel [as many of you will think this is] or be in the wrong head state to be able to write what I want to write, but I allow my imagination to take me where ever it wants and try and share the best bits in my writing. I write to fire my own imagination and, by extension, hopefully other peoples.

As always I am genuinely interested to hear your thoughts and comments.

In 1993 Sir Terry Pratchett published Men at Arms and with it the Sam Vimes Boots theory. It goes something like this:
A really good pair of boots costs the equivalent of more than a month’s wages, and an ok pair cost about 1/5th of the price. And whilst the ok pair may last for six months if you are lucky, the good pair will last for years. Thus the poor man who buys the ok boots will, in the long run spend more on boots and still have wet feet.
Whilst in the most general of terms it is probably one of the truisms of life, I believe it misses out a few points that need to be considered. Also, because I am a motorcyclist who actually uses a bike for the daily commute in all weathers and because I have been employed for most of my adult life in one workshop or another, I have been wearing boots rather than shoes since before I left school. Thus I have a soft spot for boots. Particularly ones that don’t leak and last for a more than a few weeks. Oh, and don’t cost the earth.
Now, if you are not already fed up and have read thus far then there is probably not a lot of point in asking for your permission to continue.
So, first let us consider the boots. Here I’d like to re-categorise slightly. Now have boots “A” the really good boots, handmade and tailored to fit your feet by craftsman, using only the best materials. The real cherry on the top type boots, that will not only last for years but also, provided they are looked after, can be re-soled and heeled ad infinitum.
Next we have boots “O” the good boots. These are well made on a produced basis with good materials. These boots generally have an all in one sole and heel that can be replaced perhaps once or twice before the rest of the boots gives up.
And at the bottom of the pile we have boots “X” the mass market, mass produced boot. It is made from the cheapest of material in poorly equipped workshops, by hard pressed workers trying to scratch a living in whichever country currently has the lowest wages. These boots either tend to fall off of your feet after three days, or if you are lucky, will last six months. They are often sprayed with a rubber polymer that seals them and makes them waterproof but also makes polishing them a waste of time. However, once they get the slightest scratch the floodgates will open and you’ll have wet feet all day at work.
Boots “A” cost £1000 and last 10 years
Boots “O” cost £250 and last 2 years
Boots “X” cost £75 and last ½ a year
Thus as stated in Sir Terry’s well-grounded theory, in the 10 year life span of boots “A”, you will have spent £1250 on boots “O” or £1500 on boots “X”. Clearly the poor security guard on £12,000 a year will have to spend half as much again as the man in the boardroom earning £1,000,000 a year plus bonuses…
Buts life isn’t that simple. Boardroom man is all too aware of this fact. And since everything he owns falls under the boots “A” category, he is able to save all these savings and buy up the high-street chain that sells boots “X”. Now because boardroom man very quickly becomes the largest retailer for said boots, he is either able to demand an exclusivity clause from the Far East producer of boots “X”, and/or demand a lower wholesale price. He has Far East producer over a barrel because if he takes his business elsewhere then Far East producer will have no one to buy his boots and he will go out of business. Unfortunately, Far East producer now has no option but to reduce his cost. He already pays the lowest wages, and his factory has seen better days so he has no option except to use even cheaper materials.
Now boots “X” still look like boots “X”. They still cost security guard man £75 but fall apart in 1/3rd of a year so he has to buy even more boots or, if he can afford it, save his pennies and buy boots “O”.
Boardroom man is happy to start with because he is selling more boots “X” to begin with. Then starts getting complains from his customers and, more importantly to him, his sales begin falling. Therefore he needs a way to hide the fact that the boots are rubbish. How can he get customers to want to replace their boots every few months? Enter the idea of fashion, a la mode, the in thing, the where it’s at now.
Boardroom man now gets far east producer to change the style every three months, add a line of stitching here, a sequin there, coloured laces etc. etc. He then carefully advertises to the masses that he has the latest style in his shops. His new fashionable boots become popular, the must have for the season. All he has to do is sits back as the money rolls in.
Poor old security guard isn’t part of the masses and just wants the plain old boots he has bought for years. His need isn’t influenced by fashion and he is now forced to save up and buy boots “O”.
This is fine to start with, as boardroom man’s empire grows, people stop buying boots “O” because they want the cheaper fashionable boots “X”. Soon the factories making and the shops selling boots “O” become fewer in number. They either have to adapt and start producing and selling cheaper and more fashionable boots or they will go out of business.
Boardroom man is happy because he can still buy boots “A” and have dry feet, oh and he has made lots of money in the process as well. But poor old security guard is stuffed because not only is he a lot poorer having spent more on boots, he now can’t buy the boots he needs and has wet feet.
Confused? So am I. I realise that this is a highly simplistic view of things and someone will usually fill in any gaps in the market, but only if the gap is large enough. And it is only a matter of time before Far East producer’s prices become too high and he is replaced with South American producer and eventually African producer. But what happens when there is no new cheap labour force? We will all be buying boots “X” but at boots “O” prices except for boardroom man who will always be able to buy boots “A” because quality never goes out of fashion.
Please feel free to comment or rant. Your thoughts and opinions have as much right to exist as mine. I may not agree with them but that is what makes the world what it is.
If you are interested in my further musings then please visit my website http://www.lyonnessetales.co.uk or read my book first book, Bubble of Time which is available from Amazon at http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00BNWH4KI.
R.J.Trivett

It’s a bit difficult to know where to start. Really I suppose I’m trying to explain what I wanted to achieve in a book without spoiling it for those who haven’t yet read it.

I drifted sideways from Fantasy to Sci-Fi with my book ‘Justice 4.1 (The Tsarina Sector). I regard SF and Fantasy as a continuum rather than two separate genres. Hard SF is very much at one edge of the continuum, Space Opera is much closer to Fantasy.

Tackling a new field, I wanted to try and achieve something I’d never really attempted with Fantasy, I wanted to show the ‘alien-ness’ that is possible within humanity. Matthew Hughes explained it best in his book, ‘The Other’.

I’ll quote him, rather than try and explain it myself;-

“At that moment, Imbry experienced an instance of the abrupt mental dislocation that often struck those who travelled widely among the Ten Thousand Worlds. He had heard it called the ‘Bump’ or the ‘dissonance’ and had encountered it himself more than once. It was the psychic shock suffered by a human being from one world who suddenly became aware that the person from some other world with whom he was innocently interacting possessed a radically, perhaps chillingly, different mindscape.

The two might be chance-met in a tavern. They would fall into innocent chat about inconsequential matters, each convinced by the other’s views on the weather or the quality of the beer that they were like-minded in all that matters. Until one of them offers an offhand comment about the tedium involved in having to sell his surplus offspring, or enthuses salaciously about next week’s public evisceration of a malefactor whose crime turns out to be something like scratching a buttock within ten paces of the portrait of a local saint.

An icy frisson passes through the stranger. He holds himself perfectly still though his eyes dart about, alarmed. Shadows seem to gather about him. All at once it seems perfectly possible, even likely, that the bland couple sitting at an adjacent table, or the idlers in the street outside might without warning show fangs and unsheathe claws, leap upon the hapless visitor, and turn an until-now pleasant excursion into an impromptu abattoir.”

How do you write ‘the Bump’? Is it possible to allow the reader to experience it or is it merely something you describe the characters experiencing?

I’ve got theories, (or less pompously) I’ve got a feeling that it can be done, but I think that to do it, the universe and the characters must seem normal. They must be people that the reader can empathise with and like. Once you’ve achieved this, you might be able to have your characters and readers go through ‘the Bump’ together. Perhaps.

But still, I wanted to bring into the story things that were of striking normality, experiences the readers could imagine and might want to share. Here’s one of them:-

“When Haldar and Bartan arrived back it was still dark, the streets were quiet, bicycle rickshaws taking the last of the revellers home. Padro was waiting to pilot them in his own flitter. As they flew north and east, Bartan peered down into the darkness spreading out below them. They passed over the lights of the city, then the suburbs, until finally below them was largely dark.

“Indeed, then they feed into fifteen mil pipes running between plots and we use the usual commercial solar pumps to keep things moving.”

Bartan nodded. “There’s your answer Haldar, the pipes mark the sides of the plot. They serve a combination fertiliser and irrigation system. At least I’d assume irrigation, are there waste water reservoirs, so that you can dilute for irrigation purposes?” There was pride in Padro’s voice. “Yes, fertiliser and irrigation, but the reservoirs are buried, we don’t waste land. The fifteen mil pipes take standard fittings so you just go in and set up the rain-guns when you want to irrigate a plot.”

Bartan said, “I’ve moved rain-guns in my time. I assume that those down there have their own solar panel to power their pumps.” “They do.” Padro smiled as he reminisced. “I used to move and service rain-guns before I made enough money to start my first night club.”

“Jarado B14 Masticators in line to keep things chopped up fine and moving, stop the nozzles blocking?” Bartan asked.

“No, we use the big B145, but you only need one every twenty miles.”

Bartan nodded to Haldar. “Ever seen a Jarado Masticator working?”

Haldar sounded a little bemused. “Unless they’ve taken to fitting them to warships, it’s a branch of technology that’s passed me by.”

“They’re impressive. They break things down so completely that they’ll rupture cell membranes. They’ll even break up waste wood that gets into the system.”

“I suppose that’s impressive.”

”It is.” Bartan glanced at Padro. “On New Charity, we reckon they’ll break down a human body in a couple of minutes, and ten minutes later the murder victim is spread over a hundred acres of wheat.”

“Look,” Padro said, “Haldar has a nasty, suspicious mind and doesn’t need encouraging. How about we go down to ground level and take in the dawn?”

Bartan gave a broad smile, “now you’re spoiling me. It might even keep Haldar from mentally running through his missing persons file to see how many have been recycled as fertiliser.”

Padro brought the flitter down and landed it on a dirt road. He switched off the engines, and as they slowly stopped spinning, silence returned to the area. The three men sat quietly for some minutes, watching the first red glow appear on the underside of the clouds. The glow spread, reds, orange, even a hint of purple, and then there was the first rays of the sun. Day had broken. Suddenly there came the sound of a score of little motors starting up. Bartan tapped Haldar on the shoulder and pointed. On the nearest rain-gun the solar panel was slowly rotating to face the east. Along both edges of the plot a score or more of other rain-guns mimicked the action. As they watched, the sound of the motors grew louder, and then as Star MM43-62 showed her full face, all the rain-guns blasted a ruby laden coruscating fan of water into the air. The rain-guns of Akin saluted the dawn.”